New Total Chaos Lower Ball Joint Conversion

After over two years and 35,000 miles of testing, the new Total Chaos Lower Uniball Conversion is here for the first gen Tacoma, 3rd gen 4-Runner (and once fitment is confirmed) the 00-03 Tundra. It uses a 1” uniball, works with TC lower arms and stock lower arms (maybe others but that was not tested). There is a version for OE outer tie rod and Heim outer tie rod. Its 100% bolt on to the stock steering knuckle and uses a 5/8” 12pt bolt with c-lock nut to hold it together. It also comes with new 10mm 10.9 flange nuts. The pins are machined into the part and it also now registers into the bottom of the steering knuckle which takes the load off the hardware. The location and angles of the tie rod have been changed to minimize factory bump steer and tie rod bind at droop. Also the uniball angle has been changed so it doesn’t bind at droop like the factory ball joint does.

https://www.chaosfab.com/product/1996-2004-Toyota-Tacoma-Lower-Uniball-Conversion-OE-Tie-Rod

https://www.chaosfab.com/product/1996-2004-Toyota-Tacoma-Lower-Uniball-Conversion-Heim-Steering

 

Open up the online purchasing, I don’t have the time to be reading out my credit card number over the phone! That’s is my only issue, otherwise, great product!

 

Online purchasing is now up. Thank you for the suggestion.

 

It would be great to see this for the 03-06 Tundra too.

 

What's the expected service life of the LBJ? It looks like they are user serviceable. Can you confirm? Thanks.

 

any addtl pictures of this installed?

 

+1, also wonder how long the uniball will last in the salt belt for some of us.

 

Do you have any information on the brand and fit spec for the uniball these come with?

I suspect these will be vulnerable, similar to the lower spherical bearings on aftermarket coilovers.

 

They use a 100% stainless uniball and race. I have 30,000 miles on mine and they are still tight. Uniballs aren’t necessarily “serviceable”, you can drop a dry Teflon lube on the ball if it gets loud but they can’t be adjusted. That being said the uniball conversion gives you the ability to replace the uniball itself instead of buying a complete new ball joint, while also correcting the tie rod location/angle and the uniball cup angle. In my experience when you put a cap on a uniball it just traps stuff inside as debris and condensation come up from the bottom and corrode under the cap and are “out of site out of mind”. These aren’t for everyone but they can’t catastrophically fail like the ball joints do.



This is spray painted, they are now cerakoted

 

Do they come with safety wire bolts?

 

thats nice no more LBJ failures for you 1st gen's

 

No they do not, I drilled my own in testing.

 

Potential game changer.

Gonna run a Black Friday sale or anything?

 

No, the price is the price. These aren't cheap to make, and you get what you pay for.

 

Would be nice if I could buy Total Chaos stock length LCA's as well.

 

Can you explain to me how they “can’t fail” like oem when it is still just a ball in a socket, but now exposed to the elements, and still under constant tension due to Toyotas piss poor suspension design?

The ball and socket are still going to wear out, and that is what causes the failures on ball joints. It is my understanding that uniballs tend to wear out and get loose at a much faster rate, and require much more upkeep (I.e. cleaning and lubing) than a standard balljoint.

it is a nice looking product, and will probably be great for people looking for max travel and articulation etc., but everything I’ve read about uniballs says this would not be a better option than a standard sealed balljoint for your average daily driven vehicle, especially for those of us in winter climates with sand, mud, and salt/mag water to deal with.

 

In my 18 years of working in the off-road industry I’ve only seen 1 uniball catastrophically fail. It was a poor quality uniball that eventually came out of the race. The $15 replacement was raced in Mexico throughout 2 seasons on a class 7 truck. The owner will. It be named but in my opinion that’s what you get when you don’t prep race cars.

I have seen countless first gen ball joints fail. The OEM ball joints are pretty damn good and very strong. The problem is when people don’t check their vehicles out and let them get sloppy.

There is no arguing that it’s a bad design on Toyotas part, it was a design carried over from the 86-95 truck. That truck did t have issues because the load was on the upper ball joint because that’s where the torsion bar put the load. When they went to the Tacoma they changed from a torsion on the upper to a coil-over on the lower arm and kept the same lower ball joint design additionally they added a steering arm to it which only multiplied the load. The bottom line is the design is what it is. The first gen Tacoma is the last good from truck Toyota made in for the US market so TC decided to make a stronger option for the customer who wants to off-road their truck and have piece of mind that it’s not going to come apart.

The uniball conversion isn’t for everyone and TC never claimed it would out last an OEM ball joint, they claimed it’s stronger than an oem ball joint.

The ball joints that fail do so for a multitude of reasons. I have seen the ball come out of the race on a Tacoma ball joint but if you have let your joint get that sloppy without noticing that’s kind of on you. Mostly it’s the ball stud breaking. With the uniball design the whole thing is held together with a 5/8”-18 12point grade 8 bolt. I’ve never seen a bolt of this size in an application like this shear off like the ball studs do on Tacoma ball joints. Is it possible for the ball to come out of the race? Yes I guess everything is technically possible. But if you let your joint go far enough to where the ball comes out of the race then you got what was coming to you for not maintaining your vehicle.

 

Be patient

 

You've given me hope.

 

It would also be nice if they moved the wheel forward like the Solo motorsports dose.